Trump

[Oniya]

The attempt to explain the evangelical support of Dump is likened to King Cyrus who was a pagan king yet was used to do god's will in rebuilding the temple.

Yeah, I'm looking more at Rev. 12 and following.  Merchants weeping because no one can buy their products, false prophets, all that fun stuff.

[Hades]

Yeah, I'm looking more at Rev. 12 and following.  Merchants weeping because no one can buy their products, false prophets, all that fun stuff.

Ain't no party like an apocalypse party.

[Oniya]

Ain't no party like an apocalypse party.

I was a weird kid.  >_>  Catechism teacher asked us what our favorite Bible story was, and I said the Woman Clothed with the Sun.  Teacher moved on to the next kid.

[Norwegian One]

Donald Trump, the Messiah? :)

To quote Monty Python;

"He's not the Messiah! He's a very naughty boy!"

[gaggedLouise]

One of many defiant Danish cartoons after Trump's Greenland debacle, from leading Copenhagen morning paper Politiken:


https://politiken.dk/indland/art7345310/Trumps-angreb-p%C3%A5-Danmark-skal-flytte-fokus-fra-gr%C3%B8nlandsfiasko

Love the nod to the classic WW1 recruitment poster with Lord Kitchener. :)

[Beorning]

A lot of what can be chalked up to 'mental illness' on Trump's part can just as easily be explained as fatigue, ego, and petty cruelty. None of which necessarily facilitate a disorder.

It's quite en vogue to armchair analyze hateful figures and wonder what kind of diagnosis may fit them, but this ends up creating the effect where we posit that authoritarianism and hatemongering is something no sane person can subscribe to or perform. Adolf Hitler is perhaps the most notable example; the man was a meth addict during his final moments and doubtlessly operated under extreme stress in his bunker, but this omits the fact that Heinrich Himmer was just as guilty a facilitator of the Holocaust but suffered from none of that. Not to mention the millions of mentally stable German citizens who gladly went along with the Reich's worst excesses.

We should not give Trump and his supporter the same benefit of the doubt. He is still a mentally competent man; rather it is his arrogance and unwillingness to be wrong which makes him act irrationally.

In general, I agree: it's far too easy to write off politicians we don't like as mentally deficient... On the other hand, though, mental illnesses and issues do exist - and there have already been historical cases of people in power suffering from them. Going with the Third Reich examples: I have no doubt that Hitler was, for most of his career, a mentally competent man - but near the end, he was obviously deteriorating due to drugs (is that confirmed?) and / or dementia (I've heard opinions that the man was suffering from Parkinson's disease). On the other hand, Himmler didn't suffer from these problems - and if you look at his behaviour even at the end, he remained rational, he didn't do obviously crazy stuff. He was a man with extremely hateful beliefs - but, until the end, was able to strategize, engage in rational (at least from the point of view of a war criminal) diplomacy etc.

Trump? I'm not saying that I look at his every action and think "That man is clinically insane". No, for the most part I see an immoral, power-hungry politician with a huge ego and disgusting beliefs. But some stuff, like his reaction to the Greenland affair? These things I have trouble squaring with any notion of mental competence. Maybe it's all about him being so drunk on praise and power - maybe such things can cause a person to be so disconnected from reality. But, maybe, it's really a sign that something very wrong is going on with the man's brain... It's not like there's no precedent in history for situations like these.

[Oniya]

Trump is continuing to drive fears of a major economic crisis.  The tweets here, starting at 10:59 AM (Eastern Time) have him 'hereby order'-ing American companies and manufacturers to stop doing business with China, and as well as 'hereby order'-ing all package carriers to search for and refuse any packages of Fentanyl from China.  (90% sure that's the Customs Office's job, not the carriers, and his authority doesn't cover 'hereby order'-ing citizens in the first place.  Also, Ivanka's patents.)

This is what happened to the stock market in the hours after that: 



Possibly minutes, if my pixel-counting is remotely accurate.

[Sara Nilsson]

So he tells his rich buddies he will go out and dump the stock market, as soon as it dips they buy low to sell high?

also...

18 U.S. Code § 227—“Wrongfully influencing a private entity’s employment decisions by a Member of Congress or an officer or employee of the legislative or executive branch”

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/227

[Blythe]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-confirms-hes-considering-a-payroll-tax-cut-amid-mounting-economic-concerns/2019/08/20/2c97e500-c37a-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html?noredirect=on

This is perhaps the only news I've ever read about Trump that genuinely pissed off some of the Trump supporters I know in my area. There's a notable poor Republican base in Trump's supporters, many of which strongly care about Social Security, so...this was perhaps one of the very few things he could say to alienate some of his base.

Coupling that with another possible tax cut...honestly, with the ballooning deficit & his ridiculous China tariff nonsense, it's like the man's goal is to brute-force a crippling economic recession.

[Vekseid]

Oh man the budget fight this year is going to be fun.

[TheGlyphstone]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-confirms-hes-considering-a-payroll-tax-cut-amid-mounting-economic-concerns/2019/08/20/2c97e500-c37a-11e9-9986-1fb3e4397be4_story.html?noredirect=on

This is perhaps the only news I've ever read about Trump that genuinely pissed off some of the Trump supporters I know in my area. There's a notable poor Republican base in Trump's supporters, many of which strongly care about Social Security, so...this was perhaps one of the very few things he could say to alienate some of his base.

Coupling that with another possible tax cut...honestly, with the ballooning deficit & his ridiculous China tariff nonsense, it's like the man's goal is to brute-force a crippling economic recession.

The raw cultlike devotion he commands will outweigh that, I think. His poor supporters will find anyone to blame except him.

[Tolvo]

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/458611-trump-admin-asks-supreme-court-not-to-extend-sex-discrimination-ban

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-1618/113490/20190823161324683_17-1618%20-1623%2018-107%20Amici%20BOM%20Members%20of%20Congress.pdf

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dominicholden/trump-scotus-gay-workers

https://time.com/5654844/title-vii-trump-transgender-department-of-justice-supreme-court/

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2019/08/23/trump-admin-to-supreme-court-its-ok-to-fire-workers-for-being-gay/

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/gay-workers-not-covered-civil-rights-law-trump-admin-tells-n1045971

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-justice-gay-lgbt-discrimination-civil-rights-1455977

https://www.advocate.com/politics/2019/8/23/trump-admin-supreme-court-allow-gay-people-be-fired

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dominicholden/trump-trans-scotus

As many people predicted, especially trans people who were being targeted the most harshly, the DOJ under Trump has said to the Supreme Court that it should be and is legal to fire and not hire people based on sexual orientation. This comes after similar has been done towards transgender people. I believe it's October 8th when the Supreme Court will be deciding on this.

[gaggedLouise]

Trump suggested, several times, to nuke hurricanes out in the ocean to literally blow them apart and stop them from hitting the US.  Yes, he meant using real nuclear bombs...

https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html

*double facepalm*

[Oniya]

The crazy thing is that literally nobody in that room said 'My God, that's a stupid idea!  You'll irradiate the entire East Coast!'

There's a scene in The Producers where Dick Shawn (playing Lorenzo St. Dubois, playing Hitler) suddenly realizes that the other people in the war room are German.  They agree with him that yes, they are all Germans, and he announces 'That means we cannot attack Germany!  All my friends are there!'

The drugged-out hippie gets it!

[Regina Minx]

Buying Greenland?  So last week. Today we’re nuking hurricanes.

[Oniya]

And now the Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Rob Porter.

https://judiciary.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-judiciary-committee-subpoenas-rob-porter

They are going balls-out on the people involved in the 'obstruction of justice' charge.  We're up to three now.  Expect more meltdowns on Twitter.

[CrownedSun]

Buying Greenland?  So last week. Today we’re nuking hurricanes.

I told my grandmother this, and she noted to me that they actually tried that in the past.

That, afterwards, the hurricane in particular stopped over Cuba for a huge amount of time and did tons of damage. Which they blamed on us, naturally, and we ended up paying out some damages?

So...

...yeah.

[Callie Del Noire]

I told my grandmother this, and she noted to me that they actually tried that in the past.

That, afterwards, the hurricane in particular stopped over Cuba for a huge amount of time and did tons of damage. Which they blamed on us, naturally, and we ended up paying out some damages?

So...

...yeah.

https://www.wired.com/story/nuking-hurricanes-polar-ice-caps-climate-change/

Given that the heat energy given off by a hurricane every 20 minutes equals a 10 megaton bomb I don’t think it would work like he thinks.

[Oniya]

NOAA has been shooting down this particular tactic since 'Project Plowshare' back in '59 (Page 78 and following)

NOAA's official statement here:
https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5c.html

[Tolvo]

I'm not sure what incident your grandmother would be thinking of, nuking a hurricane has no benefits and I've never found any records of it being done in history. The radiation alone is enough reason to why it is a truly horrendous idea. If the USA nuked a hurricane that then hit Cuba that'd probably be hot war time.

[Oniya]

Just got something concrete on this (namely an article with an actual picture of the room):

Trump skipped out on the climate summit at the G7 citing a 'schedule conflict'.

[Sara Nilsson]

President Trump answers @jdawsey1 question on #climatechange: "I think I know more about the environment than most people."

https://splinternews.com/president-of-the-united-states-wheres-england-1837582536

Why would he even bother being there, he knows best

[Oniya]

Holy Hannah - they're trying to bring in McGahn!

https://judiciary.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-judiciary-asks-judge-expedite-ruling-testimony-former-white-house-counsel

McGahn threatened to resign rather than help Trump fire Mueller.

[TheGlyphstone]

Didn't he blow them off the last time they subpoenaed him?

[Oniya]

That's why the motion is going to the courts.

Today, the House Judiciary Committee filed a motion to expedite the ruling in the lawsuit to compel former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify before the Committee